Oil Tanker Carrying Bakken Crude Runs Aground in the Hudson River

The first ever oil tanker to carry Bakken crude oil from Albany, NY, to Irving Oil Corp’s refinery in Canada ran aground in the Hudson River yesterday.

The accident occurred roughly 10 miles south of Albany yesterday morning, and today divers are assessing the extent of the damage. The US Coast Guard has confirmed that the outer hull of the double-hulled Stena Primorsk, was indeed breached, and a barge is en-route to help offload as much as 100,000 barrels of the 279,000 barrels of crude oil held on the ship.

Erik Swanson, of the Coast Guard, stated that, “our focus right now is on getting the vessel moved, since it’s impeding traffic there on the Hudson, and the environmental side of it, ensuring the vessel’s safe transit on the Hudson,” adding, “we’re still investigating whether it did run aground or hit something in the river.”

Although Richard Hendrick, the general manager at the Port of Albany, claimed that the 183 meter long tanker had hit rocks just outside the shipping lane after a mechanical failure knocked out the steering.

Ian Corcoran, the vice president of the Hudson River Pilots Association, said: “I haven’t spoken to the pilot yet, but if the ship loses the ability to steer, the width doesn’t really matter,” and stated that it is merely an unfortunate coincidence that the very first tanker to make the trip ran aground.